


Wind's Day

by drunknpylades



Category: Tales of Zestiria
Genre: Fluff, I Don't Even Know, M/M, Relationship(s), general feelings, they just just had to be written, wind seraphs being obnoxious
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-07
Updated: 2015-11-07
Packaged: 2018-04-30 09:37:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5158940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drunknpylades/pseuds/drunknpylades
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>SPOILERS</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Maybe Dezel's not as absent as everyone thought. And who better to feel the wind than another wind seraph?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wind's Day

**Author's Note:**

> This was just begging to be written. Seriously. Zaveid likes to touch Dezel's hat in game and I cannot handle them. Plus I don't like the idea of Dezel being gone for good. There's too much alluding to him still being around. So here's what I think is going on. With a nice side of Zaveid. No beta, all mistakes are my own.

It had been happening more and more often. Every time Zaveid found himself in a tight spot during battle, or a lucky hellion managed to catch him off guard a sudden gust of wind would blow the enemy off balance or spin him around in time to ward off the unseen attack. It was convenient as hell, but the seraph had to admit that it was also kinda creepy. Like there were eyes on him. Zaveid was pretty sure he knew whose eyes they were but still.

It was after just a close call that Zaveid had finally had enough. “Ok enough! I can handle myself ya ghostly windbag!”

“Why are you shouting?” Sorey asked. The Shepherd had just cut through the last of the hellions and was now giving him an odd look over still twitching corpse. “You feeling ok?”

“He’s going senile.” Edna threw in. “Happens with old age.”

Zaveid growled under his breath and spun around to face the rest of the party. “I ain’t that old!” He sputtered, quickly switching gears when he realized that protesting was just going to make it worse and ran his fingers down his chest. “Not my fault I have the mature physique of a well toned man. Can’t help it if I’m just that good looking.”

Edna rolled her eyes and swung her umbrella up to catch him under the chin.

“What was that for?!”

“I thought with your manly physique you would have been able to dodge that no problem.”

Zaveid rubbed at his chin. “You’re so cruel, little lady Edna.”

Lailah covered her mouth to try and hide her smile and Rose laughed in his face. “That’s what you get, braggin’ about your skills and not having the chops to back it up.”

“I’ve got the skills, Rosey dear. Maybe next time we bunker down somewhere cozy I could-” He’s interrupted when a particularly strong gust of wind hits him in the face. Zaveid sputters and takes a stumbling step back, hand to the hat on his head to keep it from blowing away. “Ok, alright already. Off limits. I get it. Enough with the cyclones.”

Rose is looking at him with a raised brow as if he’s some strange client to be figured out. “Who are you talking to?”

Zaveid is about to open his mouth with a clever retort when Lailah is suddenly at his side. Her presence alone snaps his jaw closed on what he was about to say and she smiles demurely up at him. 

“Did you know that cyclones are actually more active on Winds-days than any other day?”

Mikleo snorted in a very un-seraphlike way and turned away with his fist pressed against his mouth. 

Rose scrunched up her nose. “That was bad, Lailah. Even for you.”

“I know. I just couldn’t help myself.” Lailah said.

“Maybe we should look for somewhere to rest, if even Lailah’s puns are suffering.” Sorey added. “We could use a few more supplies while we’re at it too. That last hellion was tougher than I expected.”

Mikleo scoffed. “Just because you weren’t paying attention to it’s weaknesses doesn’t mean it was actually stronger than you.” 

“Hey!” 

And they were off. The two arguing like an old married couple as they headed off down the path. Attention was smoothly averted from Zaveid and he gave Lailah a grateful smile.

“Thanks. Don’t know how well that whole business woulda gone down. Especially with miss Rose.” He wasn’t sure how the Squire would take knowing that her old friend was still hanging around, but he could guess that it probably wouldn’t be pleasant. Especially for him.

“You can feel him too, can’t you?”

Zaveid looked up, eyes widening as he looked at the Prime Lord. “You mean you-?”

Lailah’s eyes dropped to the ground, a sad little smile on her face. There was something shining in her eyes that looked an awful lot like guilt and Zaveid wanted to reach out and offer comfort in some way. Not that he’d be taken seriously, but it was the thought counted. Right?

Thankfully any further awkwardness on his part was avoided when a gentle breeze blew around them. It tugged at Lailah’s hair and she reached up to brush it back into place. Her smile this time was genuine. “We should probably catch up to the others before we get left behind.”

Zaveid just shook his head and watched the fire seraph glide away after their ragtag little group of adventurers. 

“Ya know, most of the time I have no idea what those crazie are thinking. But it’s not a bad little bunch you’ve got here.” The wind at his back picked up, forcing him to take a step forward. Almost as if telling him to join the others. If Zaveid was going to take it as an inclusion into the group no one had to know. “I’m goin’, I’m goin’. Hold your horses.”

The wind twirled around him as Zaveid finally started walking, and for just a moment out of the corner of his eye Zaveid saw the blurry image of a man dressed in black and green at his side. He grinned and quickened his pace. Nice to know there was someone watching their backs.

-

The rain hadn’t let up in days. They’d buried Mayvin almost a week ago and it seemed like the sky was never going to stop crying. They’d barely made it back to Pendrago before the downpour had started and now it looked like they were stuck until things let up. The fields surrounding the city were beginning to flood and travel was suspended for the time being by order of the Crystal Knights.

The inn they were staying at had become stifling. Tempers rising in the small space and even Sorey had seemed to have had enough when he snapped at Lailah about her humming. They were all on edge.

To escape the tension and get himself out of the line of fire Zaveid had slipped outside while the others were distracted with trying to calm Sorey down and soothe the irritated nerves. He found himself hiding out under the inn’s front awning, watching the rain come down.

“Some journey we’re on here, huh? Not too sure about my choice to join up with these losers right now. Might have gotten things done faster on my own.” Talking to himself was not something Zaveid had done much of before all this, but now it just seemed par the course. Of course, he wasn’t actually talking to just himself, but to no one else was going to know that by looking at him. His audience was just a little bit incorporeal.

“Not that I’m not having loads of fun here, but we seem to making a lot of pit stops.” 

Even in the torrential downpour the wind somehow found its way to him. A cold brush of air across his face that made Zaveid shiver.

“Low blow, D.”

Ever since Dezel’s passing Zaveid had felt a kind of presence in the group. Nothing malevolent, so he hadn’t mentioned it. There was also the part where he thought he was going a little crazy and things had been kinda tense with everyone at the beginning. 

As time went by the presence had stuck around, becoming more and more solid. Zaveid noticed early on that he was the only one getting these feeling and decided to keep his observations to himself. It wouldn’t do to have the others worrying about him, and he didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up when he didn’t have any real proof. Nothing beyond his own feelings anyway.

He and the other wind seraph had never really gotten along, but after Zaveid had taken Dezel’s hat as his own his things had started to change. That was when the wind had started harassing him.

Now he reaches up to pull the hat from his head, setting the garment in his lap and running a finger over the gold baubles on the brim. It makes him wonder what things would have been like if the other seraph had survived. 

Would they all still be traveling together? Though technically they still were. Since Dezel wasn’t as gone as everyone thought. But what would it have been like to have him around physically? Would they have fought? Would it have been easier or harder to fit into the group if Dezel had still been around to voice his opinions? Would Zaveid even have joined them in first place?

The wind picks up again and blows some of the rain hard enough to reach Zaveid in his little hiding spot. The cold water against his bare chest has him yelping in shock and jumping as far back from the edge of the awning as possible. “Damn, if you want a guy’s attention all you gotta do is ask nicely! No need to drench me.”

He bends to retrieve Dezel’s hat from where it fell to the ground in his scramble backwards and brushes it off. The thing just hangs limply in his hand and for the first time Zaveid wonders if he has any right to be wearing it. He hadn’t exactly asked first before claiming it as his own. If anything he should have offered it to Rose first. Maybe he should bring it up somehow before they set off again. 

Something of his thoughts must have shown on his face because the wind picks up again. This time with an annoyed sounding howl as it tugs on the hat. How wind can sound annoyed he has no idea. And yet somehow Dezel manages to pull it off.

“So this is where you ran off to. Shoulda known you’d turn tail at the first sign of real trouble.”

The words are said without any kind of malice and Zaveid plasters on a grin. “You know me. Rosey. Gotta be on the lookout for anything that could harm this beautiful face. Any longer in there and Edna mighta started swinging that club she calls an umbrella.”

Rose smiles from where she’s leaning in the inn’s doorway. “Yeah, you dodged a bullet there. She almost took all our head’s off.” There’s still something tense in her eyes, but Rose shakes it off and give him a look. “So what’re you doing out here anyway? Besides hiding from the lady Edna, of course.” There’s a pointed look toward the hat in his hands that Zaveid is very carefully not noticing.

“Just contemplating the world’s great mysteries. Gotta keep the mind as sharp as my bod.” When in doubt, lay on the charm. It’s been Zaveid’s policy from the start, and it seems to work for him. Most of the time.

Rose just rolls her eyes. “Uh-huh. Pull the other one, Zaveid. You were “contemplating” Dezel’s hat pretty hard before I said anything.”

Busted. How long had she been standing there? How had Zaveid been distracted enough not to notice her? He glared up at the underside of the awning and hoped Dezel was proud of himself. Stupid self sacrificing wind idiot.

“Just wondering what the guy’d have to say about all this I guess.” Zaveid finally answered. He figured if he owed anyone some kind of explanation it would be Rose. “I know I’m not really anyone’s first pick, but sometimes it feels like I’m stealing someone else’s spotlight.”

Rose frowns and a sudden gust of warm air blows across them both. For a brief moment Rose looks content. Like she knows what that breeze means. Then something flashes in her eyes and she’s suddenly the serious leader of the Sparrowfeathers. Like a switch being thrown.

“You’re right. You weren’t our first choice.”

Ouch. That hurts a little more than he was expecting it to. Zaveid’s fingers tighten around the brim of Dezel’s hat. Being careful not to crush it in his grip.

“But that doesn’t mean we’d trade one of you for the other.” Rose is still talking. Not looking at him. “Dezel made his choice. And in the end he was happy. I’m not gonna spit on that because I feel sad. Yeah, we all miss him, but… but if getting him back meant losing you I don’t think any one of us would make that trade.”

He’s stunned. After all this time traveling together he’d known the rest of their group had come to care for him in their own special ways, but having it spelled out for him like that was like a punch to the gut. 

After Eizen he’d told himself he wasn’t going to get involved like this again. It complicated things. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you looked at it, the Shepherd and his little band had made him break that little oath.

She’s right.

It takes everything in his power not to shriek like a little girl.

The words had come from so close that it was like they were being whispered directly in his ear. He doesn’t dare turn to see where they came from. He knows what he’ll find. Nothing. Maybe a faded outline of something if he looks hard enough, but Zaveid would rather live in ignorance at this point. Besides, sometimes you could see things clearer if you weren’t looking right them.

Rose is looking at him now, a confident smile on her face. Zaveid is trying to focus on her and not on the dark figure going in and out of focus standing beside her.

Dezel looks just like he always did. Proud and pouting with his arms crossed over his chest and a frown on his lips. 

Zaveid grins like a madman. “Nice to know you’re all feeling the love.” He purrs. “Maybe you ladies have got a few more tender feelings you need to work out?” The words might be for Rose, but the wink is thrown directly at the spot where he knows Dezel is standing.

There’s a brief moment where he swears he can see the other seraph frowning at him in perfect clarity before the image bleeds away into the rain. Zaveid’s going to call it a win.

Rose throws up her hands. “Why do I even bother? Clearly your ego doesn’t need any more inflating. Now get back inside before I send Edna out after you. I promise she’s not going to be nearly as charitable as I was.” With that she turns on her heel and heads back inside, leaving Zaveid chuckling to himself in the doorway.

With a little flourish he settles Dezel’ hat back on his head and blows a kiss into the air. “I never could disobey a beautiful lady.”

This time the wind at his back sounds like laughter.

-

Strange how being dead doesn’t really feel like much of anything. Not that Zaveid was really expecting much, but after his interactions with Dezel he may have been imagining something… more.

There’s a shift of something to his left and Zaveid spins only realizing he’s weaponless was his hands come up empty. 

Pointed teeth grin back at him.

“Surprised?”

Every word he wants to say spills from his mind like water from a sieve. He knows that face. He’s been seeing it out of the corner of his eye for months and now here it is. Solid and whole and so damningly clear.

“Dezel?”

The blind seraph laughs, crossing his arms. “Were you expecting someone else? After a stunt like that did you really think you’d run into someone else?”

“Wasn’t expecting much of anything. Didn’t really think past the whole dying for the greater good bit. So this is already a step up.”

Dezel shakes his head. “You’re all a bunch of idiots.”

“Takes one to know one, D”

For a moment they both simply stand comfortably in the silence. Dezel doesn’t seem to be forthcoming with information and Zaveid isn’t going to be the one to break the calm that has settled around them. He was telling the truth when he said he hadn’t been expecting anything. After their last ditch effort against Heldalf. Zaveid had thought that was the end. At least it was supposed to be.

Not that he should be surprised. He’d a ghost haunting him most of the journey so maybe he should have been expecting something like this. Not that he’d prepared himself for anything like this.

“How were they?”

“Hm?”

“How were they? There at the end.” Dezel’s hands had clenched in the fabric of his jacket. “Once you guys entered Camlaan I was… blocked. Didn’t even know anything had happened till you showed up here.”

Zaveid blinked. So that’s what had happened. “Was wonderin’ where you’d gone off to. Didn’t seem fair. You skippin’ out on the last battle and all. That’s just not nice.”

“I tried.” It looked like that admission physically pained Dezel and Zaveid had a moment to feel guilty about poking fun at the other seraph before he continued. “When I realized I couldn’t follow you down into the shrine I panicked. I’d come all that way and I wasn’t just going to let you go off on your own. You don’t pay attention to your surroundings and you probably almost died a dozen or more times without me watching your back. Fool.”

Something about Dezel’s rant made him feel warm. “Were you worried about me, Dezel?”

That was definitely a blush on those pale cheeks. Zaveid grinned while Dezel sputtered and tried to recover.

“Of course I was worried! No one in that group ever watches for attacks from above and I can only do so much by blocking them with the wind. Don’t feel like you get special treatment just because you’re the only one that can feel me like you do.” Dezel seemed to regret his word choice immediately.

Zaveid took a step forward and Dezel took a matching one back. 

“Special, huh? Oh, I’m starting to think I might feel quite a bit more than everyone else.” Zaveid laughed and reached out to run his index finger down the white line on Dezel’s shirt. “Got a soft spot for little ‘ole Zaveid?”

Dezel’s face twitched but he didn’t step back again. “Shouldn’t you be worrying about the others?”

“They can handle themselves. Sorey knows what he’s gotta do.” Zaveid leaned in, flattening his hand on Dezel’s chest. “The real question is; do you?”

Dezel frowned at him, brow crinkling up between his closed eyes. That’s what had been bothering Zaveid. He could see the seraph’s eyes now, without the signature hat blocking the way, and now he had time to really look. Yet Dezel kept his sightless eyes closed. He’d have to change that,

“What?” Dezel asked. “What are you-?”

Zaveid pressed their lips together.

Wind rushed around them like a tornado. It caught at Zaveid’s hair and buffeted against his body, pushing him that final step closer to Dezel to press their bodies together. The seraph in his arms had gone still and Zaveid was about to pull away, an embarrassing apology already forming in his head when the wind pick up.

Dezel kissed him back. Gloved fingers pressed into his skin and they fell into each other man deprived of air. Maybe they had been. To Zaveid Dezel was the air, and he was going to breathe all he could.

It was too bad that they were both so wrapped up in each other that they failed to notice their little corner of heaven being filled with white light.

-

Zaveid looks out past the little stone marker. Out into the open air past the cliff’s ledge.

They’ve come a long way. 

Standing where he is now he can honestly look back on it all and say he doesn’t regret a thing. Sure, he may not have liked the way a few things went down, but in the end there is very little to complain about.

They are well on their way to ridding the world of enough malevolence so they can see Sorey return. That day cannot come fast enough in their minds.

Especially Mikleo. Everyone has been keeping an eye on the little water seraph, but the little guy seems to holding up pretty well. His world got rocked pretty hard and Zaveid gives him credit for holding up under the emotional onslaught.

A soft pressure against his arm brings Zaveid’s mind back to the here and now and he turns his head a fraction to the side, pulling his eyes away from Rose, still on one knee in the grass, to look at the figure by his side.

Dezel isn’t completely clear, but the other wind seraph is clearer than he has ever been.

After their meeting in that other place something had passed between them. Something strong enough to somehow tether Dezel just a little bit more in the real world. Zaveid can feel him like a steady pressure against his skin.

Lailah had taken one look at them both after their return and almost burst into tears. 

So far no one else can see him clearly, but Zaveid has caught the other seraph’s staring quizzically at the spot where he’s been standing sometimes. Like they’ve caught a glimpse but aren’t positive they’re actually seeing something. Maybe that’s for the best.

Zaveid doesn’t share well.

“Ok?”

Dezel nudges him again and Zaveid cracks a smile, nudging him back. “Perfect.”


End file.
